Electric and hybrid vehicles do not rely on traditional engines and at low speeds can be very difficult to hear.

NHTSA plans to phase in the new rules starting in the 2016 model year over three years. It expects the proposal will cost the auto industry about $23 million during the first year.

NHTSA estimates the cost of adding a speaker system to comply with the requirements to be around $35 per vehicle.

The new rules would also apply to electric motorcycles and heavy-duty vehicles.

NHTSA estimates the odds of a hybrid vehicle being involved in a pedestrian crash is 19 percent higher compared with traditional gas- or diesel-powered vehicles. For a bicycle crash, it's 38 percent higher.

#3
Not a bad idea. I have seen several new hybrid, 4 cylinder and electric cars that have been so quiet, if I wasn't watching I wouldn't have known they were there. After which I have always wondered why they didn't have those things make more noise.

On a related topic, good police and military vehicle to sneak up on a target building.

#5
Now while I reeeeally don't like the idea of data-recording devices being required by the Feds, the idea of a noisemaker on a Toyota Prius or Nissan Leaf electric drive makes sense. There are a LOT of these things on the streets of Seattle where I walk to & from work daily, and I've learned to make a special effort to look for them, especially when walking from the office during the fall & winter.

h/t instapundit
... Hagel's willingness to accept rogue states as legitimate players on the international stage on par with our friends. For instance, he voted against designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, opposed renewal of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act and opposed the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act. He has advocated direct, comprehensive negotiations with Iran's government, along with Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria.

...Hagel's willingness to subject the United States to the whims of international organizations. He supports the Law of the Sea Treaty, for example, which would undermine our sovereignty and require American businesses to pay global royalties for oil and gas development.

h/t instapundit
A friend and admirer of Senator Hagel called the other day to ask whether wed ever met the nominee to be secretary of defense. We expressed our regrets that we hadnt. Our friend wanted us to know that Mr. Hagel does not dislike the Jews. We said we were delighted to hear it, but we also tried to convey that the Sun doesnt care one way or another whether Mr. Hagel likes the Jews. His private views are not what we care about. What we care about is the policy line to which Mr. Hagel would hew were he to get a chance to run the defense department and advise the President.

The pieces fall into place for Champ as the place falls into pieces...

Esther Duflo is one of those people who are taken seriously by the sort of people who eat up TED talks with a silver spoon. Her big number is how to help people in the Third World up from poverty, which is a surprisingly profitable branch of economics when you consider the sheer number of NGOs and billionaires interested in getting into the aid business.

Esther Duflo is one of the co-founders of the Poverty Action Lab at MIT, more commonly known as J-PAL for the father of Abdul Latif Jameel aka Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel, a Saudi billionaire with a net worth of approximately 5 billion dollars.

Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel owns the world's largest Toyota dealership and sits on the board of Coexist as well as a number of other organizations. And Jameel provided 3 major endowments for J-PAL. Around the same time the Abdul Latif Jameel Group sued the Wall Street Journal for reporting its presence on the list of accounts monitored for funding terrorism.

Mohammed's brother was sued by victims of Al Qaeda on accusations that he helped fund its terrorist activities after his name was found on a list in the offices of Benevolence International Foundation, an Al Qaeda front group started by Bin Laden's brother-in-law.

Now Obama has chosen Duflo to serve on the President's Global Development Council which will shape American global development policy worldwide.

#3
This Global Development Council is essentially window dressing. Presidents (not just this one) appoint cronies, friends of cronies and friends of friends to them all the time. The crony gets some prestige, the President gets continued praise, lackeydom, etc.

#5
Former Mayor Koch didn't merely vote twice for Mr. Obama. Both elections he campaigned hard for the man, touring the country speaking in front of Jewish groups and writing opinion pieces for newspapers as far away as the Jerusalem Post, selling the idea that this man is good for America, American Jews, and Israel. In between times he occasionally wrote a piece critical of this or that action, warning that it could be seen as undermining Israel -- I've posted some of them here over the years -- but in the end Mayor Koch is first and always a loyal member of the Democratic party machine that made him.

#8
Koch does give an explanation. His support for Obama was an act of appeasement and he believed Obama would win anyway.

I did what I thought was warranted and intelligent, he said, He was going to win! There was no question about it. I thought it would be helpful to have a Jewish voice there, being able to communicate.

[FREEBEACON] President B.O. announced Monday his nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to secretary of defense and and John Brennan to director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Hagel nomination formalizes what many expect to be a bruising battle for the president.

"Chuck Hagel is the leader that our troops deserve," Obama said at the event Monday.

That comment rather demonstrates the antipathy he has for the military, doesn't it?

"He is an American patriot." Obama noted that Hagel is the first secretary of defense to have held enlisted military rank and the first Vietnam War veteran to serve in the post.

Obama also praised Brennan, saying, "John knows what our national security demands." He noted Brennan's work ethic and extensive experience.

Hagel, a Republican, currently serves at co-chair of the president's Intelligence Advisory Board, a position he has held since 2009. When appointed to that role, Obama praised Hagel's "sound judgments" which he saw while traveling with Hagel to Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Before becoming Obama's adviser, Hagel served two terms as a Senator from Nebraska, during which time he sat on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees. He voted for the Iraq and Afghanistan war resolutions before becoming critical of both wars.

#3
The reality's worse than that. He wants to make sure there won't be another Operation Nickel Grass by bankrupting/Weimarizing the United States. With a lot of Morgrenthau Plan thrown in. Then it doesn't matter who wins in 2016.

#4
The nomination of Hegel shows the course O takes. The senate can knock down Hegel, and O will put up another equal or worse. Every nomination he makes will be like this. O is on a roll with his socialist marxist agenda, and I don't mean Groucho.

﻿JERUSALEM - In his first visit to Israel, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is calling for a gradual reduction of American foreign aid.

Its an unlikely place to deliver the message, since Israel is among the largest recipients of American assistance. But Paul said in a Monday meeting with reporters that the U.S. cant afford to keep sending money overseas, even to allies like Israel. He says it would be harder to be a friend of Israel if we are out of money.

The Kentucky Republican, a longtime opponent of foreign aid, acknowledges hes expressing a minority opinion and doubts Congress will cut aid. He insists Washington should first cut aid to countries with strained ties to America, such as Pakistan and Egypt.

#6
$3 billion/year? We spend almost that much on Obama per year. Cut aid to Obama--fewer golf games in Hawaii and fewer perks. No more expensive trips for FLOTUS, don't take the kid to Mexico for a trip, cut the pay of the dog handler--it is about #102,000/year. Let the kids take care of the dog. It is good training for them. Obama can use Camp David more--it is closer to D.C. Pull the kids out of Sidwell and send them to public school. Obama has said how much he thinks of public schools in public statements. I'll bet we can get that $2 billion down to a range of 1/2-1 bn.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.